When was the last time you stopped to think about the safety of your home's electrical system? Although it might not seem like an imminent threat, electrical problems can cause everything from basic electrical shocks to raging home fires. Fortunately, if you know how to spot issues early, you might be able to ward off serious threats to your health and safety. I started thinking carefully about all of the different ways I could improve the electrical safety of my home, and it was interesting to see how many opportunities there were for improvement. Check out this site for tips on how to make your home safer.

Improving Electrical Safety

Installing electricity in your garage, shed, or other outbuilding can be accomplished by installing an in-ground electrical conduit and knowing how to connect the proper wiring. Here are some tips to help you begin the process to get lighting and electrical in your yard's outbuilding.

Call the Utility Companies

One of the first steps you need to complete before installing an electrical in-ground line is to call the local utility companies. Many areas have one phone number you can call to request each of your utility companies to mark their buried lines in your yard. Each company, such as the gas, electrical, cable, and phone company will send a representative to mark the ground in your yard where any lines are buried so you don't accidentally cut into and severe them.

Prepare the Trench

Depending on your budget and the type of soil you will need to bury your electrical line in, you can decide how deeply to install your electrical wiring. Some types of electrical wiring are more expensive to buy, and if your wiring needs to extend, for example, 100 feet from your home to the outbuilding, the cost of the wiring can be expensive. A less expensive electrical conduit needs to be run through a PVC conduit pipe and buried more deeply, but a rigid galvanized electrical conduit can be buried more shallowly but costs much more for its length. Talk to your electrician to find out what type of electrical conduit there is available and what depth it needs to be buried according to local building requirements.

After you have determined what type of wiring you want to run from your home's electrical box to your outbuilding, you will know the depth you need to excavate the electrical line's trench. Digging a trench of a longer length at a deeper depth can require more work from yourself, or require you to rent a trencher. If you need to dig a deeper trench to house a less-expensive cable and your soil is hard, clay-like, and full of rocks, you can rent a gas-powered trencher at most equipment rental stores. If the trench needed is shorter or more shallow, you can use a shovel, if you prefer.

Hire Your Electrician

Once you have the trench prepared and the wiring set at the bottom of the trench going to your outbuilding, you can call your electrician to hook up and connect the wiring. If you have experience completing electrical work, you can complete this installation on your own.

But it is always recommended to hire a trained and licensed electrician to do electrical wiring when you are not experienced. The risk of electrical shock to yourself or an electrical fire from faulty wiring is too much of a risk to attempt to do it yourself. For more information, contact companies like McDonald Electric.